Managing stress at work - Business Works
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Managing stress at work

S tress is more common in the workplace than many people think. Could any of the factors in the list below be causing stress to you or anyone else in your team?

Gary Newborough
  • Having too much work to do
  • Having insufficient work to do
  • Taking work home
  • Attending meetings
  • Having to work long hours
  • Little variety in work
  • Deadlines
  • Time wasters
  • Responsibility without control
  • Interruptions
  • Work never completed
  • Conflicting targets
  • Too much variety in work
  • Lack of guidance and support
  • Inadequate resources
  • Working with members of the opposite sex
  • Inadequate feedback about own performance
  • Promotion beyond capabilities
  • Being in charge of other people
  • Effect of mistakes on others
  • Working in a position below capabilities
  • Having to change your way of work
  • Change of responsibilities
  • New boss
  • Change of job
  • Having to complete unnecessary paperwork
  • Poor communications
  • Poor working environment
  • Changing directives and policies

This is not a comprehensive list, and you may well have identified other possible causes of stress on individuals or groups of people.

The possible symptoms caused by stress form a long list, but some signs that are fairly easy to see are depression, aggressive behaviour, over-emotional behaviour, an increase in error rate and smoking or drinking more than usual.

If you feel that you or someone in your team could be under stress, there is probably something you can do - either by reducing one kind of pressure or by reducing the number of different sources of pressure.

Of course, there are several sources of stress that come from outside work. It may be that you or one of your colleagues is displaying some of the symptoms of stress without any apparent cause, and this could be due to non-work-related problems.

If you suspect or know that this is the case, you could still be instrumental in reducing the amount of stress on that individual - possibly just by getting it out in the open. Be very careful in how you approach the subject, however, as some people may feel that what occurs outside work is not the concern of their boss.


You can contact Gary Newborough via:
e: editorial@biz-works.net



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